The controlled release of ingredients in various preparations is a subject of interest in a wide range of consumer applications. In the field of fabric treatment, controlled release is of great importance because the desire by consumers, and hence manufacturers, that the fabric articles are treated in a controlled fashion. In certain treatments, moreover, consumers desire a controlled and long-lasting subsequent release of the treatment composition, or parts thereof, that are imparted to the fabric during treatment. Such is the case, for example, with the perfuming of fabrics after clothing has been laundered. Consumers do not merely want clothing to smell fresh and clean immediately after laundering. Consumers want laundered fabric to be intensively and long-lastingly perfumed, thus providing an extended duration to the overall impression of clothing freshness and cleanliness during storage and/or while being worn, long after the laundering has been completed and the treatment has been imparted to their clothing articles.
A number of techniques have been employed to extend the duration of fragrance emanation from detergents, wash liquors, and laundered articles, including, for example, applying perfumes to carrier materials and coating the perfumed carriers, or encapsulating perfumes, or incorporating them in complexes (such as cyclodextrin/perfume complexes). Perfumes may also be chemically bound to carrier media, where the chemical bond may be slowly broken and the perfume concurrently released. This principle has been put into practice, for example, in the esterification of perfume alcohols.
One manner of chemical bond breaking that has been disclosed utilizes siloxanes as slow release vehicles for perfume alcohols. In the presence of small amounts of moisture, the perfume alcohols are slowly released by hydrolysis of the siloxane esters. For example, monomeric orthosilicic acid esters having one to four covalently bound perfume alcohols, for example, bis(eugenoxy)diethoxysilane or bis(cinnamoyloxy)diethoxysilane, are described, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,215,719.
Also disclosed in GB 2007703 is the use of silicon compounds containing perfume alcohols in laundry care, but this disclosure is limited to powder-form or granular detergents.
Oligosilicic acid esters containing perfume or biocide alcohols have been disclosed for use in detergents, including aqueous detergents (WO 01/68037, and related U.S. Pat. No. 7,098,178 B2), the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference, in their entireties.
Acyclic siloxanes and related silicic acid esters incorporating perfume alcohols with the general formula MaM′a.DbD′b.TcT′c.Qd where M and M′=R1R2R3SiO1/2, D and D′=R4R5SiO2/2, T and T′=R6SiO3/2 and Q=SiO4/2, where R1 to R6 independently of one another are selected from C1-40alkyl or alkoxy and C1-40aryl or aryloxy groups and the indices a, a′ are positive and one or more of the indices b,b′,c,c′ and d are positive or 0, are described in GB 2319527. The use of those perfuming siloxanes in detergents was not mentioned in the application. Further, the disclosure underscored the problematic premature hydrolysis that occurred when water was allowed to come in contact with siloxanes or silicic acid esters.
Certain fabric conditioners directed to reduction in fluff formation and pilling in textiles, particularly during a washing or drying process and the use of those conditioners in a laundry drying process are disclosed in US2003/0162689 A1. The invention also discloses a conditioning substrate containing a conditioner and a conditioning process using the conditioning substrate in a laundry drying process.
Fabric surface treatment with certain benefit agent delivery systems that can, when directly applied to a substrate, provide a longer benefit term than when the benefit agent alone is applied to a fabric are disclosed in US2003/0158079. Benefit agents include perfumes, flavors, pharmaceuticals, and/or biocontrol agents (such as biocides, insecticides, and/or mildewcides).
Fragrance delivery systems for use in dryer-added fabric conditioning compositions which provides a long lasting scent to fabric through the use of linear acetal and/or ketal pro-fragrances to the fabric surface during laundering are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,395,695. wherein the pro-fragrances release their fragrance raw materials over a period of up to two weeks. The patent also discloses a method for delivering a pleasurable scent to fabric which has a lasting freshness quality by contacting the fabric with a laundry detergent composition which comprises the fragrance-releasable pro-fragrances.
Fragrance profiles of perfumed article vary with time, in part, because the individual perfume components emanate at different rates from the perfumed article based on their relative volatilities. More volatile components may dominate early odor impressions, while less volatile and/or more substantive components prevail with time. The ratios of components in the perfume remaining on and in the headspace above the article change over time, leading to changes in overall odor impression. Thus, certain aspects of the invention are directed to providing a more consistent fragrance impression over time.
Present single use dryer sheets provide incomplete transfer of treatment, such as fragrance onto cloth. A significant portion is lost to dryer exhaust air through the combined forces of heat, forced air, and humidity. Certain aspects of the invention are directed to efficient transfer of fragrance components, including certain more volatile components, onto fabric articles, leading to less overall component waste.
Further the use of reusable fabric treatment devices may assist in reducing the amount of landfill space consumed by disposal of the single use dryer sheets.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide fabric treatment, including for example, perfumes, fabric softeners, and/or biocides in a manner which not only treats the laundry care product, but which does so in a manner that creates persistent perfume on the laundered and dried article, allowing the article to retain its impression of freshness. There is also a need to provide more effective hydrophobic fragrance delivery vehicles, preferably comprising hydrolysis-resistant siloxane esters of perfume alcohols, which may be incorporated in reusable dryer devices for fabric treatment without showing excessive signs of hydrolysis in the fabric treatment composition itself.
Applicants have surprisingly found that certain combinations of cyclic and acyclic silicic acid esters provide effective levels of fabric treatment under conditions where elevated temperature and humidity conditions persist drying a clothes dryer cycle, including treatment which subsequently provides extended duration of perfume alcohol and/or biocide alcohol emanation. Applicants have further surprisingly found that certain fabric treatment devices containing fabric treatment compositions comprising certain cyclic and acyclic silicic acid esters may be employed multiple times in a dryer for treatment of fabric, without excessive hydrolysis of the esters due to temperature and/or humidity conditions present during the dryer cycles. The present invention is directed to these, as well as other important ends.